Zalman Chaim Bernstein (1926-1999; זלמן חיים ברנשטיין), originally known in his businesses as Sanford Bernstein, was an American billionaire businessman and philanthropist.Zalman Bernstein, Wall Street giant, dies
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J. The Jewish News of Northern California ''J. The Jewish News of Northern California'', formerly known as ''Jweekly'', is a weekly print newspaper in Northern California, with its online edition updated daily. It is owned and operated by San Francisco Jewish Community Publications In ...

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Biography

Zalman Bernstein was born to a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, New York in 1926. At the age of eighteen, he joined the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

and fought in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

. He then received a bachelor's degree in economics from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

, followed by a master's degree in economics from the Harvard Business School.Interview with Roger Hertog by Professor Joseph Weiler
Tikvah Center for Law & Jewish Civilization, September 19, 2008 He worked as an economic advisor for the

Marshall Plan The Marshall Plan (officially the European Recovery Program, ERP) was an American initiative enacted in 1948 to provide foreign aid to Western Europe. The United States transferred over $13 billion (equivalent of about $ in ) in economic re ...

. In 1967, he founded the investment management firm Sanford Bernstein. When he first founded Sanford C. Bernstein, his brother Paul P. Bernstein was his sole partner.

Personal life

Bernstein married three times. He was survived by his third wife, Mem Dryan Bernstein; and three children, Claude Bernstein, Leslie Bernstein Armstrong, and Rochel Leah Bernstein; and three stepchildren, Geoffrey Dryan, Suzanne Dryan Felson, and Jennifer Dryan Farkas. He died of

lymphoma Lymphoma is a group of blood and lymph tumors that develop from lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell). In current usage the name usually refers to just the cancerous versions rather than all such tumours. Signs and symptoms may include enla ...

in 1999. In the 1980s, he became an

Orthodox Jew Orthodox Judaism is the collective term for the traditionalist and theologically conservative branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as revealed by God to Moses on ...

and dropped his English name, Sanford, for his

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

one, Zalman. He attended

Lincoln Square Synagogue The Lincoln Square Synagogue is a Modern Orthodox synagogue located at 180 Amsterdam Avenue between West 68th and 69th Streets in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. Founded in 1964, the physical location of the ...

and became an intimate of its rabbi,

Shlomo Riskin Shlomo Riskin (born May 28, 1940) is an Orthodox rabbi, and the founding rabbi of Lincoln Square Synagogue on the Upper West Side of New York City, which he led for 20 years; founding chief rabbi of the Israeli settlement of Efrat in the Israe ...

. In 1989, he made aliyah and moved to

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

. He also founded the Jewish organizations

Avi Chai Foundation The Avi Chai Foundation is a private foundation endowed in 1984 by Zalman Bernstein, a well-known successful investor and founder of Sanford Bernstein. Zalman Bernstein became a Modern Orthodox Baal teshuva In Judaism, a ''ba'al teshuvah'' ( h ...

and Tikvah Fund, and he donated to the

Shalem Center The Shalem Center ( he, מרכז שלם, ''Merkaz Shalem'') was a Jerusalem research institute that supported academic work in the fields of philosophy, political theory, Jewish and Zionist history, Bible and Talmud, Middle East Studies, archaeolo ...

References

1926 births 1999 deaths People from Brooklyn New York University alumni Harvard Business School alumni American emigrants to Israel American Orthodox Jews Jewish American philanthropists 20th-century American businesspeople 20th-century American philanthropists 20th-century American Jews {{US-business-bio-1920s-stub